The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for the activation of a low reactivity, non-polar chemical compound. More specifically, the present invention relates to process for the synthesis of useful compounds from non-polar compounds such as carbon dioxide and the like.
The chemical reduction of carbon dioxide using molecular hydrogen is not thermodynamically viable. However, the possibility to use activated hydrogen-containing compounds for the preparation of useful products from carbon dioxide is intriguing.
Some catalysts, e.g., transition metal complexes, have been shown to catalyze the reduction of carbon dioxide via hydride complexes, in which the origin of the activated hydrogen is water. Such reactions result usually in a partial reduction of carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide. However, the possibility of the further reduction to formaldehyde, methanol and/or methane is potentially very significant. Such reduction products are particularly important in chemical manufacture (formaldehyde and methanol), as well as fuels (methanol and methane). [see, e.g., “Thermodynamic, Kinetic and Product Considerations in Carbon Dioxide Reactivity”, F. R. Keene, Chapter 1 in monograph “Electrochemical and Electrocatalytic Reactions of Carbon Dioxide” (B. P. Sullivan, K. Krist, and H. E. Guard, eds.); Elsevier (Amsterdam), 1993].
In particular, formaldehyde and its derivatives serve a wide variety of end uses such as for plastics and coatings. Formaldehyde is considered one of the world's most important industrial and research chemicals, owing to the vast number of chemical reactions it can participate in.
As formaldehyde polymerizes readily in the presence of minute amounts of impurities, the commercial forms usually available comprise:                the polymer form, which can be reversibly converted to a monomer by the reaction of heat or an acid:H—(OCH2—)—n—OH        the cyclic trimeric form, called trioxane; and        the aqueous solution in which over 99 of formaldehyde is present as hydrate or a mixture of oxymethylene glycol oligomers.        
It would be advantageous to provide methods and apparatus for activation of a low reactivity, non-polar chemical compound. In particular, it would be advantageous to provide methods and apparatus for the reduction of carbon dioxide without the need to use molecular hydrogen. It would be further advantageous to enable the reduction of carbon dioxide using water or steam as the source of hydrogen. It would also be advantageous to enable the oxidation or reduction of benzene to derivative compounds, such as acetophenone, a phenol, cyclohexane, or other benzene derivatives. Another advantageous possibility is to provide the capability of achieving a further reduction of formaldehyde-derived polymers to higher molecular mass alcohols and to olefins.
The methods and apparatus of the present invention provide the foregoing and other advantages.